Topic: Holidays

Getting in Sync with the Treasure of Elul by Rabbi Ora Weiss

By Hazon on August 29, 2019 in Elul, Reflections, Rosh Chodesh

Rosh Chodesh Elul, 5779 By Rabbi Ora Weiss Restorative Judaism Boston, MA One of the great gifts of Judaism is its exquisite ability to teach us to tune in and use the energy of each month. The energy of Elul offers us unique support. But, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page when we speak of energy – so, a short explanation: Everything – and I mean everything – is energy. Just in different forms, and different frequencies. When I say frequency, it is that everything is vibrating at different rates. The different forms of energy include matter – such as the earth (remember E=mc2? – matter is just densed-down energy), light, humans and thoughts. Time itself is not homogeneous, but rather flows with different qualities of energy, different frequencies, at different times. Judaism recognizes that each month has different energies and qualities. The Bnei Yissaschar notes that chodesh – month – can be understood as chidush – renewal, (or, even entirely new!) That is, something new comes into being with each month, different flows of energy from God given to us to affect change and growth. Elul has a very special energy: it gifts us with a […]

Gratitude… and getting ready…

By Nigel Savage on August 26, 2019 in Activism, Climate Change, Elul, Food, Jewish Texts, Newsletters, Nigel, Spirituality

Friday, August 23, 2019 | 22 Av 5779Dear All,It’s summertime. This email is full of gratitude and the inspiration to strive to do good in the world.Years ago I learned from Anna Hanau this line from one of her teachers – you know you’re on the right track when your solution to one problem solves a bunch of other ones.That’s true of our work in Michigan, epitomized by the Hazon Michigan Jewish Food Festival – and last weekend we held our fourth, the largest and most successful yet, with over 7,000 people. We’re helping to drive change. We’re helping Jewish organizations to become more sustainable, including the now 20 who are in our Hazon Seal of Sustainability program from the Detroit region. We’re strengthening local food systems. We’re playing a not insignificant role in helping to reconnect the suburbs and the city, and the Jewish community and the African American community, and we’re especially proud of the work we’ve done in supporting Oakland Avenue Urban Farm. And we’re doing all this with love and celebration and Jewish groundedness and openness. So: real gratitude. Huge thanks to our staff and funders, to all our partner organizations, to our volunteers and helpers, to all the purveyors and […]

A Real Question

By Nigel Savage on June 14, 2019 in Climate Change, Newsletters, Nigel, Reflections, Shavuot

by Nigel Savage Thursday, June 13, 2019 | 10th Sivan 5779 Dear All, Do we strive to change the world through fear or through a positive vision? This is not a fake question, or the set-up for an obvious answer. I’m more confused by this question, at the moment, than at any time in my life. I used to feel that the answer was “through a positive vision.” The word hazon is Hebrew for vision, and our name symbolized this view. Yes, we needed to tackle complex and depressing issues; but we would do this by inspiring people, and by sharing a positive vision for change. And now I’m not so sure. Most people most of the day simply get on with our lives. This is the nature of being human. It’s rare that there is an acute incident – a heart attack, a traffic accident, a major fire, an act of terrorism in our own community – that really cuts through normal daily life. Other than that we toggle between obligations and celebrations, work and play, family and friends and work and study. But the climate challenge that faces the world right now is absolutely real, and it is worsening. A report from […]

Hakhel Blog: Aharon Ariel Lavi

By Hazon on June 7, 2019 in Hakhel Blog, Hakhel Blog, Jewish Intentional Communities, Shavuot

by Aharon Ariel Lavi This week we start reading Sefer Bamidbar, also known as “The Book of Numbers.” A strange name for a book, is it not? It derives from the fact that the first portion of the book, as well as other parts later on, deal primarily with counting, classifying and organizing the People of Israel back in the Sinai desert. The text gives a pretty detailed account of the numbers of men in each tribe, and using some simple calculations we can estimate that anywhere between 4-6 million Hebrews lived in the world at the time. The funny thing is that after this general census it was actually forbidden to count the People of Israel again, so the exact number of Hebrews, and later Jews, will remain a mystery. However, Jews don’t always do as they’re told, right? About 500 years later, King David made another census and was severely punished for violating this law (Chronicles I, 21). If we use the same kind of calculation we will find that the nation has pretty much multiplied itself, to 8-9 million people. Do the math, and you will discover that under normal conditions the Jewish people should have been […]

Hazon Detroit: Will We Change?

By Hazon on June 6, 2019 in Climate Change, Detroit, Shavuot

Pictured above: Rabbi Nate and other food justice leaders from across the country. Dear Friends, Last week, Hazon Detroit’s Rabbi Nate DeGroot presented at the Center for Earth Ethics’ annual clergy conference, focused this year on the intersection of food and climate change. Rabbi Nate taught on our unified connection to nature and the earth as Jews, and on Jewish practices related to gratitude and food justice. Other speakers at the conference included Former Vice President Al Gore, Center for Earth Ethics Director Karenna Gore, world-renowned soil scientist Dr. Rattan Lal, and many more. Mr. Gore’s presentation – similar in style and inspiration to An Inconvenient Truth and An Inconvenient Sequel – focused on three main questions in the face of our changing climate: 1) Must we change? 2) Can we change? and 3) Will we change? 1) Must we change? We must. Mr. Gore said he likes to keep his presentations relevant, and so he included images and videos of historically abnormal flooding all around the world that has happened in just the last week alone. We know this is severely impacting the midwest region, including right here at home, where excessive rainfall has led to significant crop losses and delayed planting amongst close partners of Hazon […]

Recipe: Wild Alaskan Salmon

By Hazon on May 24, 2019 in Food, Food Conference, Holidays, Pescatarian, Recipes, Shavuot

Want a bigger taste? Join us this summer at the Hazon Food Conference! 4 6-ounce wild salmon filets (from Alaska), skin off 1 tablespoon chopped flat leaf parsley 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme 1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary 2 teaspoons chopped fresh chives Olive oil Salt and pepper Pat dry the salmon filets. Combine the fresh herbs in a bowl. Press the herbs on to the “presentation “side of the salmon (non-skin side). Salt and pepper the fish on both sides. Place a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Lightly coat the bottom of the pan with olive oil. Place the salmon filets, presentation side down, in the pan. Here is the hard part-Don’t touch the fish for at least 3-5 minutes until the fish has browned and is not sticking to the pan. If it sticks, it has not browned enough. The browned fish will be crispy and firm and will loosen itself from the pan. Turn the fish over and turn off the heat. Cover the pan and the fish will continue to cook for 3 more minutes. Your fish will be a perfect medium rare. If you want it well done (I don’t recommend it) keep the […]

Making the Omer COUNT! Food Waste, Composting and more

By Hazon on May 22, 2019 in Food, Hazon Seal News and Announcements, Hazon Seal of Sustainability, Holidays

Dear Hazon Seal Sites, A new UN report came out this week that had some seriously grim content. One million species now face extinction, and all of this will harm human health. One of the biggest ways that we can make help fight Climate Change is by individually doing our parts and leading by example. Diverting food waste and working with our institutions to do the same is one way that we can help propel change. Below is a collection of recent resources to inspire you on your journey. All of these are also available and searchable on our Hazon Seal Resource Bank. We welcome your feedback and suggestions for resources to share with the network in the future. Wishing you a peaceful Shabbat, Merav and Ariel Announcing the next webinar: FOOD WASTE! Mark your calendars! The next webinar for participating Hazon Seal sites will take place on Wednesday, June 5th from 1-2:30pm EST and be all about food waste. The webinar will be led by Gary Oppenheimer, founder of AmpleHarvest.org and creator of Food Waste Weekend. Both resources are so valuable and helpful – we encourage you to check them out and see how you can make use of […]

Hakhel Blog: Craig Oshkello

By Hazon on May 13, 2019 in Hakhel Blog, Hakhel Blog, Jewish Intentional Communities, Reflections, Shavuot

by Craig Oshkello The local farm supply store, a seventh generation family business, left a message for me on Shabbat. Probably not aware that it was the fourteenth day of the counting of the Omer, they let me know the barley has arrived. I am one of a growing number of Jews that are leading a lifestyle based on environmental stewardship and social justice. As a Jew in the diaspora this path had yielded deeper meaning in my spiritual growth and a stronger connection to/ longing for the land of Israel. It is now Motzei Shabbos (Saturday night) and there is a buzz on the farm. Although the north faces of the 4000 foot mountains on the horizon are still under 65” of snow, the first flowers are blooming here at 800 feet above sea level at our home in the valley. Colts foot, Trout Lily, Marsh Marigold, Trillium, Lady’s Slipper and Blood Root are all of the first to bloom. They are “ephemeral” species whose bloom and foliage will disappear in a month. First to flower among the trees, the White Poplar, has a distinctly hairy looking flower locally referred to as “Popple Fuzz”, is now joined in a […]

Hazon Detroit: The Wheat Harvest

By Hazon on May 9, 2019 in Counting the Omer, Detroit, Reflections, Shavuot, Spirituality

Dear Friends, According to our biblical calendar, we are in the midst of the grain harvest, a season of gladness and growth which lasted seven weeks of seven days. It began with harvesting barley during Passover and ended with harvesting wheat at Shavuot. Forty-nine days the wheat would grow and grow, until it was ready to be cut and harvested just in time for Shavuot, when two loaves of bread would be offered at the Temple. According to our Torah, this honoring and culmination of the growing season is the reason we celebrate Shavuot, and only later did the slightly more mythical aspects of receiving Torah at Mt. Sinai come to coincide with the holiday’s significance. At one time, the flour was the revelation. Nowadays, for each of those forty-nine days, Jews around the world engage in a practice called “Sefirat haOmer/Counting the Omer,” where we verbally bless and count each day that passes. While we may not be carefully watching our wheat crops grow, tending to their needs and supporting their health, we do have an opportunity to do just that for own spirits and souls. We once were slaves and now we’re free. But in order to truly […]

Recipe: Vegan Peanut Butter Cup Pie

By Hazon on May 6, 2019 in Food, Food Conference, Holidays, Recipes, Shavuot, Vegan

Want a bigger taste? Join us this summer at the Hazon Food Conference! Vegan Peanut Butter Cup Pie This recipe & photo come from The Minimalist Baker Prep time: 25 minutes Cook time: 15 minutes Total time: 40 minutes Servings: 10 Ingredients Crust 1 sleeve graham crackers (or sub a similar gluten-free cracker/cookie) 4 1/2 Tbsp melted vegan butter or coconut oil Pie 12 ounces firm silken tofu (slightly drained and patted dry) 1/2 cup creamy salted natural peanut butter 1/4 cup agave nectar or maple syrup (or sub honey if not vegan) 1 14-ounce can full-fat coconut milk OR coconut cream (1 can yields ~1 3/4 cups // chilled overnight // no shaking the can – you want the cream and liquid to remain separate) Chocolate Ganache Topping 1 cup semisweet dairy-free chocolate chips 1/3 cup non-dairy milk Instructions Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 C) and lightly oil a standard glass pie pan (8 inches x 1 1/4 inches). Add graham crackers to a food processor and process until you achieve a semi-fine meal. A little texture is OK, just remove any large pieces that didn’t get ground. Add melted butter and pulse to combine. Add to greased pie pan and press down with your fingers to flatten. You can lay a piece of plastic wrap over […]

EASY-Creamy-VEGAN-CHEESE-Infused-with-lemon-zest-garlic-and-dill.-So-creamy-savory-and-cheesy-vegan-plantbased-glutenfree-cheese-recipe_square

Recipe: Garlic Herb Vegan Cheese

By Hazon on May 6, 2019 in Food, Food Conference, Holidays, Recipes, Shavuot, Vegan

Want a bigger taste? Join us this summer at the Hazon Food Conference! Garlic Herb Vegan Cheese This recipe & photo come from The Minimalist Baker Serves: 32 For the Cheese 2 cups (240 g) raw cashews 2 garlic cloves, minced (1 Tbsp or 6 g) 1/2 tsp garlic powder, plus more to taste 1 lemon, zested 2 lemons, juiced (1/4 cup or 60 ml) 3/4 cup (180 ml) water 2 Tbsp (6 g) nutritional yeast 1/2 tsp sea salt 2 Tbsp (30 ml) olive oil For Serving 2 Tbsp (8 g) finely minced fresh dill Instructions Place cashews in a bowl and cover with cool water. Cover with plastic wrap and set in the refrigerator to soak for 12 hours. If you can’t get to them right away, drain, place back in bowl, and cover with plastic wrap. They will keep refrigerated for 24-36 hours. Once soaked, drain cashews thoroughly and add to food processor. Add minced garlic, garlic powder, lemon zest, lemon juice, water, nutritional yeast, salt, and olive oil. Process until very creamy and smooth, scraping down sides as needed. Then taste and adjust seasonings as needed, adding more lemon zest for tartness, nutritional yeast for cheesiness, […]

Vision.

By Nigel Savage on May 2, 2019 in Counting the Omer, Newsletters, Nigel

By Nigel Savage Thursday, May 2, 2019 | 12th day of the omer; hod she’b’gevurah Dear All, Today is Yom Hashoah, and the attack in Poway of course remains on my mind. Like many of us, I was inspired by the words and deeds of Rabbi Goldstein, and by the courage of the people in the shul. I feel, as others do, the need to respond to anti-semitism, both on the right and on the left. The world is changing, and it needs us to act, both proactively (challenging bigotry and banning guns) and defensively (increasing security in Jewish institutions). But I want to add this, and strongly: we must not obsess about anti-semitism. History doesn’t repeat, and it doesn’t repeat mechanistically. The very fiber of Hazon and of all that we do is built around the notion of vision, positive vision, and of the need not simply to be against things – anti-semitism, or attacks on Israel, or for that matter bigotry or racism of any sort – but instead to offer a strong and powerful positive vision of the nature of Jewishness in the 21st century. This applies even to the big ticket items that are Hazon’s raison […]

Food and Freedom: Our Relationship with Food, Ethical Consumption and Responsible Recycling

By Hazon on April 29, 2019 in Food, Hazon Seal News and Announcements, Hazon Seal of Sustainability, Holidays

Dear Hazon Seal Sites, Earth Day is this coming MONDAY, April 22! Here is another themed listserv email to get you all excited! As we come together around the Seder table this Passover, we invite you to take this opportunity to explore your relationship to food. If this is not new to you, we invite you to dive a little deeper. During this time of year we celebrate our freedom and remember times of inhumane treatment and abuse. We are elevated by appreciation for our liberty to choose and, if we are fortunate, the abundance of modern times. This year Shabbat coincides with Passover, making this Shabbat exceptionally holy. Let us take a look at our Seder table and ask ourselves: Does this table represent me and my values? In this modern industrial world, it is hard to shop and eat without perpetuating suffering in some form or fashion. But we can try. Let’s ask ourselves: How can I better celebrate without perpetuating harm or suffering? We have the freedom to choose, but do we choose wisely, kindly? Our tradition compels us to care for our environment and to take animal suffering seriously. In our food choices we have […]

Kaddish for my father

By Nigel Savage on January 17, 2019 in Newsletters, Nigel, Reflections, Tu B’Shvat

Last year Tu B’Shvat fell on a Tuesday evening. We’d arrived that morning in Johannesburg, and just a few days before I’d Googled and found a Tu B’Shvat seder. It was in a place called Huddle Park. We didn’t know anyone there, but it was my 33rd consecutive Tu B’Shvat seder, and it was absolutely one of the most beautiful. This very lush park, an urban wetland, full of long grasses and exotic trees. There was a long long silent meditation walk that went on for almost an hour. I walked in the gathering darkness, and the huge full moon of Shvat came up and brought moonlight to this unfamiliar landscape. I was thinking about my Dad as I was walking. I’d been in Manchester the week before, and he was weakening very significantly. It was a strange and intense and beautiful experience, essentially alone in Africa, in this unfamiliar place, celebrating a holiday that I love, walking, thinking about my dad. And we got back to the hotel, tired and jetlagged, sorting stuff to go on safari the next morning, and the phone rang. It was my mother, to tell us that my Dad had died. He’d died about […]

Hazon Detroit: Growth Ring Blessings

By Hazon on January 17, 2019 in Detroit, Education, Holidays, Reflections, Tu B’Shvat

Dear Friends, At sunset this Sunday, January 20th, we will usher in Tu B’Shvat, one of the four new years on the Jewish calendar. Just like our secular calendar has multiple year cycles—think calendar year, fiscal year, school year—so too, our Jewish calendar has multiple year cycles: birth of the world, birth of the Jewish people, the first of Elul, and Tu B’Shvat. Tu B’Shvat, named for its calendrical date – the 15th of Shvat – celebrates the birthday of the trees. Just like our birthdays mark a year of growth for us, in a symbolic way, Tu B’Shvat serves the same purpose for trees, marking another year of their growth. Regardless of when during the year a particular tree was planted in ancient times, its first birthday was always tallied on its first Tu B’Shvat. In this way, Tu B’Shvat might be considered the day when a tree symbolically forms its next ring. We have reached the cold months of winter when, like us, trees actually slow down for a period of internal hibernation. In cold winters, growth within a tree slows to a slogging crawl, before picking back up again when the temperatures rise. In fact, it is […]

← Previous 1 … 3 4 5 … 13 Next →

Navigation